Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
8
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
A Year After the Failure.
WILL FIGHT TRUSTS.
r^Oh. WETMORE of the Leggett &
Meyers Tobacco Co., said recently to CHANGES BROUGHT ABOUT BY THE DOLGE ASSIGNMENT INDUSTRIES OF THE VILLAGE WHICH
his employees when he bade them farewell
ALFRED DOLGE FOUNDED ENTIRELY OUT OF HIS CONTROL BUSINESS RUNNING
SMOOTHLY AGAIN.
upon the absorption of that concern by the
trust. "For the last twelve years," he
Dolgeville, April 14, 1899.
streets and level tracts for building pur-
declared, " I have been engaged in an
One year ago last Monday, morning poses. The great ambition of his life was
almost continuous fight against the sale of Alfred Dolge stood before the bar of Judge to build a city in the foothills of the Adi-
this company to the Tobacco Trust. I have Hiscock's trial term of the Supreme Court, rondacks that should be populated chiefly
met trust men at every game. I have in the village of Herkimer and voluntarily by wage-earners. He purchased farm after
denounced them in public and to their asked the kindly offices of the court in the farm surrounding the village. A corps of
faces. I have tried to persuade my business appointment of a receiver for the great in- engineers was placed at work and the map
dustrial, house of Alfred Dolge & Son.
of "Greater Dolgeville " was the product
associates not to sell to a combination under
The day was one that the residents of their labors. The new streets mapped
any circumstances.
of Dolgeville will never forget. When out by Mr. Dolge were sufficient to make a
" I have known the dangers of trusts, news first reached the village that the city of 30,000 inhabitants. He candidly
and I tried to convince others of them. For Dolge firm had gone to the wall the believed that the time was not many years
twelve years I succeeded, but I was not report would not be credited. The news distant when the new streets he had laid
was first posted on a bulletin in front of one out would be improved and soon lined with
strong enough to keep up the fight. At of the newspaper offices and, so great was
the homes of workmen. Mr. Dolge is
last my associates yielded, and I was forced the indignation of the operatives in the to-day back where he was in the '60s, when
to capitulate. With the control in my felt mills, at one time it was talked of form- landed in New York with $10 in his pocket
own hands, I never, never would have ing a committee to destroy the bulletin and commenced peddling skins and wire
consented to the sale of this plant to a board. The workingmen absolutely re- around to the piano-making trade. He has
trust. But I was only one man against a fused to believe the story. Later the news seen the
was confirmed and that night the big felt
HOPES OF HIS LIFE BLASTED,
mighty corporation and my powers of per- mills closed down and, with this closing
a life-work gone. Others are in control of
suasion had failed. There is a grand op- down, the rule of Alfred Dolge in the the vast industries he founded and he has
portunity for independent companies, and industry he founded closed for good. One no connection and no interest in the
I believe the fight against monopolies will industry after another in the village went management. Mr. Dolge came to Dolge-
the way of the parent firm and into the ville in 1874 and purchased the old tannery
yet be won.
hands of receivers.
plant. The village then contained two
"It is the duty of every man to use his
• CHANGES OF A YEAR.
hundred souls. He was poor and all of his
best endeavors to check the encroachments
One year has elapsed and the Dolge fac- capital and more was engaged in the busi-
of trusts, grasping and soulless. I believe tories have all been sold under the order of ness. He commenced manufacturing piano
that the country is in danger from this the court. One by one they have been felt and piano sounding boards. He main-
source, and I for one propose to do all in gathered in and are now the property of tained a store and headquarters for his
my power to kill monopolies, wherever or the great felt trust. The whistles blow as business in New York and for nearly
usual. The busy hum of the machinery twenty-five years it had been his custom
in whatsoever form they are found.
is again heard and to all appearances the to spend three days in New York and three
"I expect to devote all my time, all my commercial and industrial prosperity of the in Dolgeville each week. One day of the
energies and all my wealth to aid in the village stands in about the same position week he spent on the road. During his
fight against these giant combinations that that it did one year ago.
early career he was too poor to enjoy the
There is one man in Dolgeville, at least, luxury of a horse and carriage, and it was
are fast ruining the business of the coun-
to whom the'whistles that summon hun- his custom to walk eight miles from Dolge-
try."
dreds of operatives to their daily toil con- ville to Little Falls each week on his trip
He then wired Bryan proposing to aid
vey a mournful sound. That man is the to New York. He would usually return
the fight against trusts in every way.
founder of the village, Alfred Dolge. from New York on an early morning train
The opposition to trusts is steadily gain- Events prove that, had Alfred Dolge been and, on reaching Little Falls, he would go
ing and, as Col. Wetmore remarks, there able to correctly read the future his actions into the baggage-room, drink a cup of black
is a grand opportunity for independent and movements on April n , 1898, would coffee and then, putting on a pair of rubber
boots, would start for his home in Dolge-
companies to run against the monopoly. have been far different than they were.
ville
afoot. His energy and capacity for
Alfred Dolge has controlled millions.
What a field this trade would offer for the
work
were something phenomenal.
Just previous to his failure he was a re-
independent piano manufacturer, what puted millionaire.
He had a credit for
His business grew and prospered, new
arguments the " a n t i " salesman would years that appeared to be limitless. He lines were introduced and during the last
make against the crushing trusts with the could go into the money market and ob- 1 10 years of his career he had millions at
proper literature in his possession and tain thousands where other borrowers his disposal. It has been said that Mr.
aided by convincing editorials in the trade with less energy could not obtain dol- Polge was visionary. He may have been,
lars. He was able to swing vast busi-. but he was very much in earnest. He was
papers.
ness enterprises involving hundreds of' ^always an extensive borrower in the mar-
thousands of dollars. All of his hopes,
akets. It is now known that, before 1898, he
Widenmann Traveling.
all of his energies, all of the vast capi-
was on the ragged edge of failure, but he
Immediately after the adjournment of tal he controlled was used for one pur- succeeded in getting out of the difficulty.
the Convention of the National Piano Man- pose— that of building up the village
Place another man in Alfred Dolge's po-
ufacturers' Association in Washington, of Dolgeville. " There is nothing too sition and let him pass through the expe-
Robt. A. Widenmann left on an extended good for Dolgeville," was his favorite riences he has during the past year and the
business trip in the interest of Strich & expression in piiblic and private. Money chances are that he will collapse entirely.
Zeidler. He will be away quite some time was poured into the village and laid out in For six months succeeding the failure
covering every important city of interest improvements. The residents looked on Alfred Dolge remained at his home in this
in the West and South. Business with in wonder and amazement as the work of village a disappointed man but hopeful of
Strich & Zeidler is reported as satis- improvement went on. Mountains, forests the outcome. He expected that, when the
and gullies were leveled off into. village
factory.
final settlement was made, he would have
& ! •£<• \
•
.